Wednesday, April 21, 2010

A.L. Barker -- Great Novelist

“Who needs fiction with the sort of truth we’re up against?”

“This story is about you.”

– A.L. Barker, The Haunt

Born in 1918, A.L. Barker was seven when my mother came into the world. She won the first-ever Somerset Maugham prize in 1947 for Innocents, a collection of stories, and her novel John Brown’s Body was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1969. I first heard of her in April, 2010, when, reading the Wikipedia entry on Rebecca West, I came across a quote: “I love the novels of A.L. Barker.” Unfortunately, the only one of A.L. Barker’s books in the wonderful Mid-Hudson library system is The Haunt – which I immediately ordered up from the Mahopac Library. Published in 1999, The Haunt is written in a brilliantly pointilist style, with rather a large cast of characters and several interweaving plot lines, all loosely focused by the location — in Cornwall, near a hotel, the Bellechasse (‘French for ‘good hunting.’”I can’t wait to read more. With Sybille Bedford, A.L. Barker is now one of two female novelists I did not discover until I was in my sixties. Probably I should wonder how many more there might be.

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About Me

Prize winning novelist and chef. My food column appeared in six daily newspapers long before the food revolution began. I have written several novels even less well known than beloved Gravely, which Scribner's published in 1984 and blessed with their Maxwell Perkins Prize. These manuscripts -- Why I Love Brunettes and Daughters -- are available to any interested reader. I started writing as a sports reporter on the Kingston Daily Freeman. I have a Master's Degree in Fiction Writing (telling lies?) ... but no B.A., though I do speak French and Spanish and have studied enough Greek to parse the Koinae. Long before I attended the famous Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, my food column Christian's Cookery used to appear in eight daily newspapers, including The Charlottesville Daily Progress and The Omaha World herald. After attending high school near Woodstock, New York, where they never had the Woodstock Music Festival, I owned a very successful money-making restaurant in Charlottesville. While working as a country mailman, I learned to jump small coops bareback. I have piloted hot air balloons. I love my children more than stars. Two of my best friends, both named David, died some years ago. I love scribbling, cooking and Morgon. I still believe B. Traven was Jack London. My favorite movie is Mr. Hulot's Holiday. And the restaurant opening scene from Playtime. Do you know me?